Pull quote: It is a sad commentary that Black leadership, on campus and off, have not, as of the writing of this column, raised their voices above a whisper.

The University of Minnesota and Hennepin County have once again demonstrated their racist and sexist sides by causing social injustice in their handling of the U of M football team’s threat to boycott the December 27 Holiday Bowl in San Diego until charges of sexual assault are dropped against fellow players. The original findings by the Minneapolis Police Department and the county attorney’s office was that the incident was consenting and there was no cause for arrest. The woman and the men even agreed not to sue each other.

Then bias and ugly took over. An “80-page sexual-assault investigation report” was accepted without being fact-checked. The 80-page report changed “the narrative” of the boycott, as prejudice and bias replaced the truth in terms of Black men (obviously guilty) and a White woman (obviously innocent).

As the old warning goes, if they can deny due process to “them” they can do it to “us.” Do we really give up our vigilance?

The later announcement by the county attorney of re-opening the case further reflects the pressure applied by White feminists and others who see this as an opportunity to severely wound the future presence of African American athletes at the University of Minnesota, attesting to Black men’s lives don’t matter, only those of White women.

The lies of that 80-page report will eventually come out, but not before young lives have been ruined because of the denial of due process, just arbitrary expulsion, suspension and probation. We are reminded of the U of M campus carnage of 1985, when African Americans were shown there is no place for Black student athletes at the U of M.

In the award-winning book Under the Tarnished Dome, regarding University of Notre Dame football and its football department, the same thing occurred as Whites piled on Black players. Two chapters in the book are about Lou Holtz’s two years at the University of Minnesota. I was quoted as indicating that there was a clear pattern and practice of racism at the U of M, which I covered in Chapter 10 of my 2002 book, about the university: Burying the Truth and Losing Its Soul.

Thus this 2026 boycott and aftermath is not the most devastating event in the history of Minnesota athletics as the Star Tribune claims. Once again we are burdened with the ignorance of an angry White newspaper that chose to ignore earlier research and ignore earlier facts despite being archived in the records of Hennepin County District Court, the NCAA, the book Under the Tarnished Dome, and my book.
Unreasonable minds of a group of racists (against Blacks) and sexists (against males) in the UM Office of Affirmative Action started the denial of due process. The university followed suit: Treat African American athletes as if they are nothing more than property, denying their existence as human beings.

It took great courage for Anton Winfield, Sr., on behalf of his son and the other nine African American student athletes, and Tyrone Carter, one of the most distinguished and respected African American alumni and a football great, to stand tall and ask for justice for these young men. It is a sad commentary that Black leadership, on campus and off, have not, as of the writing of this column, raised their voices above a whisper.

Think of this: The county attorney, who refused to charge a gunman in the shooting death of a two-year-old African American child in the summer of 2016, is now the same chief prosecutor preparing to charge, indict and try 10 young African Americans for whom there is “no cause for arrest.”

Stay tuned.

For Ron’s hosted radio and TV show’s broadcast times, solutions papers, books, and archives, go to www.TheMinneapolisStory.com. To order his books, go to www.BeaconOnTheHillPress.com

Black Media faces many challenges in 2017. Success or failure in Black America will depend on the following:

Journalistic integrity (mainstream media still uses us as tokens).

Hard research (not soft balls and puff pieces).

Ability to stand against the domestic / White political elite and be heard.

Ability to ignore White media herds and calls for violence.

The victory by Donald Trump provides a great challenge for the next four years. Black journalism has to decide whether to hide with the White mainstream as it establishes its Kremlin of White journalism, advocating for one political party, leaving unanswered the question of Black journalism: will it advocate for education, jobs, housing, public safety and economic development in our inner cities and suburban communities?

We know some will not like the word Kremlin in this narrative, but mainstream journalism has become like a Kremlin in America (a Kremlin is a major fortified central complex in historic Russian cities, the most famous Kremlin being in Moscow).

Will writers understand their mission and resist the offers of career bribes, and restore the rich and long history of Black journalism, which is the history of the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder? This will truly be a test for the Black Fourth Estate in America. Let’s have no more lazy or yellow journalism. Fake news cannot be the order of the day within the Black Fourth Estate, including the fake news panels on mainstream television.

Let’s not replace hard work in the Black Fourth Estate with backsliding, slanting, and excuses. As 2016 comes to an end, an assessment must be made to develop a workable news gathering/reporting strategy for the next four years. We have heard of no discussions of this.

Many White and Black news media seem to have joined with the Clinton Camp, still reeling at being stunned by the greatest electoral upset since Truman beat Dewey in 1948. We were not (see our blog of November 8, 2016 that lists our 8 columns that help in Understanding Election 2016).

The new administration will take the mantel of power at noon on the 20th of January. Let us not forget Article 2 of the constitution, as Black America’s Fourth Estate must be ready and dug in to keep the masses of Black America accurately informed about how the political landscape impacts their communities.

The threats to America’s democratic institutions are real. Vladimir Putin has long had friends in the Western Kremlin, as do other countries intelligence services that hacked into both party’s servers in the hope of interfering in the American election. Some say Putin is not a friend of the West, but on January 20, 2017 we will see how cemented or not he is with the new administration, as suggested even by two Republican Senators, John McCain of Arizona and Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, as they call the Trump administration to stand in the well of the Senate to explain. All Americans are owed an explanation of all long-term foreign relationships.

The president-elect said he would do much for America's inner cities. We will hold him to that, and by development we don’t mean White gentrification and construction through Black displacement.

The Black Fourth Estate must be in the forefront of defending America’s future, as it must put its journalistic examination at the forefront in reporting on the future of the least of our citizens. Black America cannot afford journalistic laziness, pretense and fear in 2017. We must stand tall. We must be vigilant. We must be prepared to defend the Constitution of the United States of America.

God bless you and protect you this Holiday Season, including Christmas, New Years, and throughout 2017.

Pull quote: All the players in this historic championship run all live within the boundaries of North High School. This is important because for a decade there has been a talent drain of African American talent to schools outside the city of Minneapolis

Congratulations to North High School for winning the state Class 1A championship in football. They have not only done North Minneapolis proud, but also the entire city of Minneapolis, as this is the first championship for the city since 1977.

North is now the only high school that has won a Minnesota championship in all six sports categories: 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, and 6A. Head coach Charles Adams III is now the first African American head football coach in the state of Minnesota to win a state title. North is making history.

Just five years ago, the Board of Education and certain political figures were ready to lock North’s doors. North was left to find students. They did: 62 of them, starting with one grade, ninth grade. Today North has over 400 students. That puts them in Class 1A.

North is now one of the few Minnesota high schools in any classification to hold state championships in both football and basketball the same year. North won the Class 1A state basketball championship for the 2015-16 basketball season.

There is tremendous pride being felt in the North High family and, by extension, the Northside community. Coach Charles Adams III, is being recognized as one of the top high school football coaches in the state of Minnesota. The job he did along with his coaching staff, which included his father, Charles Adams II, was almost a miracle in and of itself.

In Coach Adams’ first season he was lucky to be able to suit up 16 players for a game. But as North began to improve and show its ability on the field of competition there began to be grumblings. Some in the Minnesota State High School League (MSHL), the governing body, attempted to pressure North to accept re-classification in one of 4A or 5A or 6A, where they would be in competition against school three-six times the size of North high school.

Another historic market: all the players in this historic championship run all live within the boundaries of North High School. This is important because for a decade there has been a drain of African American talent to schools outside the city of Minneapolis, particularly in the sports of football and basketball. White communities particularly don’t like to talk about that.

Head Coach Adams, a 1999 graduate of North High School, began with a commitment to the development of the tremendous talent that exists within North’s school boundaries. And so it was with great pride two weeks ago that thousands were able to watch the North High Polars’ march to the state championship on statewide television. Rest assured not everyone was pulling for them but their community certainly was.

I’m reminded of some of the great athletes that came out of North High after it was allowed to be integrated in the 1930s: great names, great athletes, all of whom would be proud of the tenaciousness and spirit and the commitment of North’s current leadership, starting with the Principal Shaun Harris-Barry, Athletic Director Leo Lewis, and the parents and friends of North High school.

This is a cherished moment for an important neighborhood institution of Minneapolis. North did not give up. The community persevered and proved what I often write in these columns: given opportunity, we can use our genius to develop action plans to achieve success. May more community organizations do so.

Again, we offer our heartfelt congratulations to North High School for being state champions in both football and basketball. These young people, our future, have given strength to our community that too often has been nonexistent.

Pull quote: The City of Minneapolis must determine whether it will work with the Minnesota Board of Education regarding increasing meaningful education opportunities for students of color.

The next election for Minneapolis mayor is November 2017. An early candidate to announce for the office of mayor is a former NAACP President, who has indicated her platform’s vision for Minneapolis.

There will, of course, be other candidates for mayor as well as candidates for the 13 seats of the Minneapolis City Council. All of them should guarantee a very spirited campaign season. The newly announced candidate is a former professor of law at prestigious University of St. Thomas. We expect from her a deep and probing analysis of the problems facing the institutions of government in Minneapolis.

This comes at an important time in the history of liberalism in the city of Minneapolis. The vision of liberalism in the time of Nellie Stone Johnson and Hubert Humphrey, co-founders of the Democratic Farmer Labor Party, is changing from “nonviolence matters” to a divisive, self-defeating liberalism that accepts the violence of today’s progressives.

But marching and rioting is not enough. Action must support what is important: helping our community improve education, jobs, housing, and public safety, instead of disrupting them. What’s needed is a strategy that works. What is needed, again, is that work to improve education, jobs, housing, and public safety.

An example is the massive construction going on. Leadership wants us to fall for the false narrative of the myth that we are enjoying greater prosperity for African Americans and others of color. In fact, this paper ran a four-part series on the economic prosperity driven by the construction of the Vikings U.S. Bank Stadium (the “Peoples’ Stadium”).

There will clearly be debates over whose narrative is correct. That should in itself be spirited, as documentation by both sides is presented and then previewed and analyzed by the voters for the election of November 2017. Documentation is an important part of the debate over prosperity or no prosperity. Documentation authenticates who is or is not telling the truth and who really understands the issues.

This is extremely important in determining who is knowledgeable or not, regarding one of the most dangerous threats to communities of color: illegal drug use and abuse. Addiction and death is sky rocketing. African American communities are devastated by the impact of drugs. The issue of addiction and illegal drugs must have a platform of unquestionable debate and clarification of how it destroys our communities.

Clearly Trump knew Washington would initiate the narrative that calls for stiffer sentences, greater intrusion on constitutional protection among communities of color, and the development of quarantine zones being developed and assigned in African American communities on the issue of education. The City of Minneapolis must determine whether it will work with the Minnesota Board of Education regarding increasing meaningful education opportunities for students of color, or if the city will possibly take an adversarial role and commit itself to attempting to take over the Minneapolis Public School System.

These are important issues for reflection in 2017, which point out the purpose and importance of the new political order. We leave you with some of the spirited reflections of those who have come before the current candidate for 2017.

As Nellie Stone Johnson said “true equality through quality education.” She said “the basic philosophy is to feed people, put a roof over [their heads] and provide a quality education.”

Thurgood Marshall said “that human rights must be satisfied through the orderly processes of law.”

Stay tuned.

Ed note: DEA on Wednesday, nation wide announcement, 16th, drug addicdtyion and violemce out of control

I write this column Halloween night, following more tricks in the form of murders, violence and misleading statistical reporting, and fewer treats of honesty. There has been three murders over the three-day Halloween weekend of October 28-30.

Our community’s darker spirits again inflict pain and suffering on fellow neighbors, one shot and killed in his apartment and two in their automobiles. And once again another African American female has been gunned down.

Never before in the history of our African American community have so many African American females been murdered the same calendar year, the latest being an innocent African American grandmother, never before involved in any criminal activity or conflict, caught in a deadly crossfire along the 3800 block of Queen Avenue North.

About four-and-a-half hours later, a 31-year-old African American father of three was shot, execution style, along the 4800 block of Bryant Avenue North. Another was killed by a man using his car to run down another man with whom he had had a dispute.

So we again wonder how is it that our African American community, allegedly enjoying new prosperity, still experiences so many deadly outcomes of murder, mayhem, and death. For a community that has allegedly received $36 million in economic assistance and $4.2 million set aside for at-risk youth, we can’t avoid the question of why so much violence in the midst of such prosperity?

Or are misrepresentations being made to allow those who are the community gatekeepers to profit from the African American community by using the narrative of false job and revenue statistics? A main theme in this column for over a decade is that evidence and experience demonstrate such acts of violence are driven by a lack of education, lack of training, lack of jobs, lack of housing, lack of cooperation with public safety, and certainly a lack of prosperity-focused leadership in the African American community (and the white leadership as well).

Some will be upset and angry at these words.Then ask, where is the counter analysis to explain why we have such violence in the midst of such alleged prosperity that would proove me wrong. Instead, we are again left with actions we don't want: having to offer condolences to the survivors of loved ones who have lost their lives to community negligence and failed administrative promises to the African American community.

We would all like opportunities to walk in step with the prosperity of Vikings’ “Peoples Stadium,” US Bank Stadium. But is “good times are here again” the correct slogan?

In our next column, in two weeks, we will touch on the presidential election. If Hillary wins, it will be a lack of prosperity as usual for African American communities, not a cause for celebration. If Donald wins, we will wonder what kind of “fire next time” will usher in. Will it be us or corruption that gets burned? With Hillary or Donald, will we get new spin doctor narratives or, finally, real hope and change?

Will the major political party institutions, the media and news institutions, and the academic and think tank institutions continue to choose to be untruthful to Black communities, perpetuating their prosperity at the expense of dangerous and perilous hopelessness and lost opportunities for positive change for us? Will Chicago, with over 600 murders to date in 2016, prove to be the exception or a sign of our future if city, police, community and gangs don’t cooperate and collaborate?

Will White and Black leadership continue to skip along their yellow brick road fantasy and leave the rest to stumbleon the road to Chicago?

Pull quote: For 30 pieces of silver some will do anything, even after realizing the 30 pieces of silver are worthless to our community as a whole.

The fire-bombing of Republican headquarters in Orange County, North Carolina, is clearly a dangerous and intimidating signal that is being sent to America. As North Carolina Governor McCrory said, it is an assault on the democratic system. But by who?

Donald trump has said the Orange County incident was carried out by animals of the Democratic Party or those who are persons of interest to the police: White supremacists?

So let’s replace the old saying of “the fire next time” with “the fire now” to describe Donald Trump’s claim. The inferno he has created to challenge historical reflections on the history of voter denial and contemporary voter fraud in America is different for us, as we have long experienced voter suppression and voter fraud, as imposed by both parties, despite the Civil War and the “freedom” of 1865.

Trump raises seriously real issues about the integrity of voter protection, and about voter fraud. This column was written October 17, and this columnist expects additional violent responses by the time this column is published October 27. And yet all of this is no less harmful than the rhetoric that African Americans are enjoying unprecedented economic advancement across the country, including the overboard reporting of economic opportunity on one of the largest public works projects in the history of the state of Minnesota.

Supporters of these falsehoods represent a very dangerous element of American society, talking revolution and speaking in the dark terms of violence if their candidate for the president of the United States does not win in November. We know many will dismiss such allegations, but Black Americans know the pain that accompanies the denial of being excluded.

As we have long written, it is troubling that some of our own community participate in twisting the factual information to support the great lie that we are doing better now than at any time in the history of the State of Minnesota and its various municipalities. Tensions rise each and every day among young African Americans when they are told great economic opportunity has arrived even though statistical data and their own experience does not support that claim.

It is disturbing that after the Bureau of Census exposed the economic collapse of Black Minnesota, only this column and this newspaper has reported the truth. It is especially disturbing when the betrayal comes from so-called African American leaders as well. Payoffs buy silence.

There are those in both parties committed to tearing this country apart if their side is not victorious in November.Will the African American community support true civil rights? Will the African American community continue to be fed the great lie of economic opportunities achieved and present for Black America in Minnesota?

It is hogwash. It is betrayal. It is misrepresentation of actual facts. For 30 pieces of silver some will do anything, even after realizing the 30 pieces of silver are worthless to our community as a whole.

The reason I spoke of Orange County, North Carolina is because this is one of those topics about which the American public doesn’t understand due to their belief in light when in reality what we have is darkness. The persons of interest have turned out to be White supremacists who took a page out of the old German playbook when Germans dressed up the dead in Polish uniforms at a German outpost on the Polish border after burning it themselves and then blaming the Poles, using that as an excuse to invade Poland. To learn more just google the 1939 attack on that radio station and see the parallel with North Carolina.

Pull quote: We await the August 1, 2016 report that will finalize the stadium numbers.

There is a serious question tonight in the Twin Cities: Wiith all the supposed prosperity we are told we hav,l in print and broadcast media, not to mention in election campaign statements, why is there violence protesting a lack of prosperity? We’ve all seen the sudden emergence of periodicals and news stories about prosperity in the Black community. We were even told a specific number: $70 million poured into the African American community. Really? Who got it?

We assume those proclaiming prosperity have the necessary documentation to verify their claim. We request such documentation be made public. Clearly, too often, people don’t do what is expected, only what is inspected. Who is inspecting the real employment and prosperity numbers?

US Bank Stadium has realized its goal: a sellout of Vikings home games. Does that indicate more prosperity for all? If so, wouldn’t 15 percent of season ticket holders be African American and 32 percent of the workforce during the three years it took to buld US Bank Stadium be African Americans and people of color as foretold, as well as exceeding requisite minority subcontractor participation, as claimed? i

Where is the confirming documentation, including by ZIP code as legislatively mandated?

Were 15 percent of workers on the Vikings stadium really African American as also mandated in the stadium authorizing legislation for the construction of the stadium? Again, with all this prosperity, why is there violence on our streets?

Six were shot and wounded in Minneapolis, Sunday evening, October 2, 2016. With all of the prosperity hype, one wonders how, with all of the economic opportunities and success going on, do young African Americans have time for acts of violence? Will our African American leadership give us the answer to the puzzling question of why the levels of violence, or are they covering up something?

Prosperous communities surround the Twin Cities. They have significant safety. They take significant advantage of educational and economic opportunities. So the mystery remains: Why is there violence in the midst of all this prosperity, especially in communities of color? When will we receive an answer? Don’t mass shootings, particularly in downtown Minneapolis and the surrounding communities, indicate a lack of prosperity?

As noted, we heard there was an infusion of $70 million into our community, with better than $3 million in salaries for African Americans working stadium construction? Where is the documentation of proof? Without proof serious questions and doubt remain.

Documentation is what authenticates and verifies jobs and prosperity claims. So in preparing for this column we did the following: We went back and reviewed House File 2958, and then we reviewed Minnesota State Facilities Authority’s report dated January 15, 2015.

We await the August 1, 2016 report that will finalize the stadium numbers. Given the amount of tax money paid and amounts transferred from community to stadium, we have “bought” the right to see the numbers supporting the claims of tremendous community economic success from the construction of the Vikings’ US Bank Stadium.

We invite all to review Subsection 9, under “research”, in the stadium authorizing legislation, as we did of the legislative language reflected in House File 2958. Why hasn’t the final “compliance” report been filed by the joint legislative commission, as mandated, by statute, to occur within 60 days after the formal completion of all contractual obligations pertaining to Section 15, Section 473j, point 11, “Stadium Design and Construction.”

Why has the document showing this great prosperity for the African American communities’ renewal not been filed, let alone reported and fully published in all legal and relevant publications?

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